Critique Red Kites at Gigrin Farm

WaltonR

WaltonR

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Richard Walton
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My long awaited trip to Gigrin Farm Red Kite Feeding Centre was well worth the wait.
Firstly, I have to say thank you to the staff at Gigrin for their hospitality and a very well run centre.
Typically, the weather turned from bright sunshine to overcast and cloudy with light rain just as the food went out, only to get better afterwards.
I was warned that there would be so many birds that I'd find it difficult to chose what to shoot first, but I soon got the hang of it and managed to squeeze off just over 700 shots. Just as well, because after uploading them to Lightroom, I found that the grey skies were worse than I thought and many shots were just unusable.
That said, with a bit of rescue work I managed 44 keepers and I'm fairly happy with the results even if the skies are blank white/grey backgrounds.
Feel free to critique as normal.

1)


GF070622-3 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

2)


GF070622-13 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

3)


GF070622-17 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

4)


GF070622-24 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

5)


GF070622-34 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

6)


GF070622-36 by Richard Walton, on Flickr

Thanks for looking (y)
 
[2] & [4] are great. Well done on extracting those colours despite the grey sky! Of the two, I prefer [4] for the lack of tags on the wings.

The rest:
[1] Interaction.. almost! But both have their heads turned.
[3] Focus maybe a tad off, probably due to the background.
[5] & [6] are good but not on par with [2] & [4]

Now to find them in blue skies :)
 
boer13 said:
[2] & [4] are great. Well done on extracting those colours despite the grey sky! Of the two, I prefer [4] for the lack of tags on the wings.

The rest:
[1] Interaction.. almost! But both have their heads turned.
[3] Focus maybe a tad off, probably due to the background.
[5] & [6] are good but not on par with [2] & [4]

Now to find them in blue skies :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comments.
It was really difficult to focus on individual birds as there were so many.
I agree with you on the tags issue. When I get 5 mins I’m going to see if I can clone them out. Hopefully.
I think the focus issue in nr 3 is mostly down to my poor skills but partly as it was raining.
Again thanks. :0
 
Single bird shots look good considering the conditions Richard (y)

Not a fan of the 1st with the oof bird above, just personally choice :)
 
Gigrin is great, I love it there.

In the conditions, you've done well. Number one, I would crop to below the OOF kite, keeping the in focus one.

Number 4 is my pick of the bunch, it's looking straight down the lens.
 
Phil-D said:
Single bird shots look good considering the conditions Richard (y)

Not a fan of the 1st with the oof bird above, just personally choice :)
Click to expand...
Thanks Phil. I’m beginning to think you’re right about # 1 too. The more I look at it the more I think hmmmmm!
 
Dale. said:
Gigrin is great, I love it there.

In the conditions, you've done well. Number one, I would crop to below the OOF kite, keeping the in focus one.

Number 4 is my pick of the bunch, it's looking straight down the lens.
Click to expand...
Thanks. It was my first visit and an amazing sight. The sound of the wind rush as they swooped down just in front of us (I was in the low level hide) gave us a sense of how powerful they really are.

#4 is my fav too.

I did get one shot of a bird a split second before it grabbed some food off the floor. It was a classic wings back, talons out and forward shot about 4” off the deck. It would have been the shot of the day but just a little too OOF to be usable.
 
Excellent set, No4 is lovely :)
 
WaltonR said:
I’m beginning to think you’re right about # 1 too. The more I look at it the more I think hmmmmm!
Click to expand...

Richard, I think the biggest problem might be, when scrolling down, you see the oof bird 1st, if they'd been the other way round it may have worked.
 
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